PREMIUM DC 2013, "Camel Dive Club & Hotel" - Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Keep in touch in the next days we will insert other questions in order to know this amazing DC.

Question 10: What is the strongest argument for your DC to convince me as customer to dive at your DC?

At Camel Dive Club & Hotel our philosophy is the same now as when we started 27 years ago: as divers ourselves, we focus on providing what divers want for a fantastic and memorable diving holiday- top-quality facilities in one convenient location, friendly and professional staff, and spectacular Red Sea diving. See you in Sharm!
For more Info PIC/LINK: webpage/photo/video: http://www.cameldive.com/

Question 9: What else can be done/seen at your place. Are there other sport/culture activities to see/attend and could I come with family and/or kids?

A truly relaxing holiday in Sharm El Sheikh definitely should have diving or snorkelling as its focus during the day, and dining and relaxing (or partying!) at night. At Camel you will find, all in the same location, some of the best venues in Sharm El Sheikh for making your holiday truly unforgettable. Our après diving scene in second to none and includes two award winning Italian and Indian restaurants, the best homemade Italian gelato cafè and the historical Camel Bar.
Egypt is a beautiful country to visit, with very friendly local people, especially away from the main tourist centres. The surrounding desert and the highlight of Saint Catherine Monastery are fantastic and are the perfect choice for your no-diving or pre-flying days.
For more Info PIC/LINK: webpage/photo/video: http://www.cameldive.com/maps/of/sharm-el-sheikh/

Question 8: What is the best time to come to go diving at your place?

Diving in Sharm El Sheikh is beautiful all year round and the Red Sea is full of surprises regardless of the season! However the best time of the year to spot huge schooling fish is during May-September, when the water temperature reaches its peak at 28C (it rarely drops below 21C in winter). In general, you do not really have to worry for the weather…it rains once per year!
For more Info PIC/LINK: webpage/photo/video: http://www.cameldive.com/maps/of/dive-sites/

Question 7: What kind of breathing gas is used on your DC and what is available as safety/back-up infrastructure at your DC or nearby?

At Camel you can find normal air fills and Nitrox up to 40% , in both 12 litre and 15 litre tanks. We also have 10 litre tanks available for pool and training dives. For tec diving, we have trimix blending capability, helium and an oxygen 200 bar booster.
All our boats are equipped with pure oxygen as first aid, as well as full equipped first aid kits. The main recompression chamber is located just 10 minutes’ drive from our dive centre, at Travco marina. We subscribe to Sharm El Sheikh’s Search and Rescue emergency service. All our staff are trained in emergency procedures.
For more Info PIC/LINK: webpage/photo/video: http://www.cameldive.com/dive/supplements/nitrox-diving

Question 6: How does your staff looks like? Are there instructors that speak different languages? Can they deal also with kids or disabled persons? Can I do some training specialties during my dives?

Camel Dive Club is known for its friendly international atmosphere. Our team of up to 40 instructors speaks English, Arabic, Italian, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Russian - and some dialects too!
At Camel we offer the full range of PADI courses, from beginner to professional, including specialties. Our resident PADI Course Director oversees the safety and adherence to standards of our all our courses.
We welcome kids for snorkeling and diving. With our specially-designed swimming pool we ensure maximum safety for little ones who want to experience the magic breathing underwater. Uniquely in Sharm, our entire premises, including 5 rooms at Camel Hotel, is accessible to wheelchair users. Our whole team including boat crew is familiar with disabled divers’s needs, and we are proud to regularly host both group and individual trips by disabled divers.

Question 5: How does your DC look like and how many equipment sets do you have? Do I need to bring my own equipment or can I rent equipment at the DC?

Camel Dive Club started in 1986 as a modest one-storey stone building made from local Sinai stone with palm-thatched courtyard, when Naama Bay was little more than a beach. We still operate from the same location 27 years later, so as Camel has grown, we’ve added our hotel, restaurants and bars around our original stone building.
All our facilities were built with two main aims: diving and relaxation. Our diving centre is still our focus and the chill-out zone in the front is the perfect place to relax with a cold Sakara after a hard day’s diving!
We are proud to be Mares’s oldest customer in Egypt and we offer equipment rental for both divers and snorkelers. We have 250 full sets of Mares diving equipment, plus 12 sets of children’s equipment, and 200 sets of snorkelling equipment.

Question 4: What kind of boats, cars or other kind of transportation do you use to get divers to the dive sites?

Our comfortable 20 metre dive boats have spacious sundeck and shaded areas, saloon, and toilets. A freshly-prepared buffet lunch is offered on board. Hot and cold drinks are available. All boats are equipped with lifejackets, marine safety equipment, VHF radio, oxygen, and first aid kits.
This year we launched Camel Tribe, our first boat “Made in Camel”. Our aim in building Camel Tribe was to provide everything that we, as avid divers, would love to have on our perfect dive boat! All our boats, including our superfast speedboat “Camel I” were built to provide maximum comfort, safety and practicality for our divers and snorkellers, including our disabled guests.
For more Info PIC/LINK: webpage/photo/video: http://www.cameldive.com/dive/category/daily-diving

Question 3: Which dive sites you go to and how are the dives there?

We run daily boat trips to over thirty dive sites, several of which are in the world’s top ten! Nearly all our dive sites may be reached within 1,5 hours sailing time. We are very fortunate to have two Protected Areas close by: Ras Mohammed National Park, and the Straits of Tiran. These have a rich diversity of corals including several endemic species, and a great variety of fish. There is always the possibility of seeing “bigger stuff” at any time of year including turtles, manta rays, eagle rays, dolphins and all types of shark. Our reefs vary from vertical wall dives to sandy plateau to coral gardens.
We run regular trips to the famous WWII shipwreck SS Thistlegorm as well as others like the Dunraven, Million Hope and Kormoran, plus night dives, diving in Dahab and speedboat diving. Our friendly and experienced instructors will guide you around the highlights of our area. We take care of all the logistics, so you may simply relax and enjoy your dives.

Question 2: How I can get to your DC and are there special things to organize like Visa or permissions to dive at your place?

Sharm El Sheikh has direct flight connections to most European countries. Our guests may either book holiday packages through our partner tour operators, or book their flights independently and then contact us to book their hotel stay and/or diving through our reservation office or online booking system. Visas for most nationalities can be purchased upon arrival at Sharm El Sheikh International Airport (cost approx. 15 USD).
After your arrival in Sharm, we operate a free transfer service between all hotels in Sharm and our dive centre, via our fleet of air conditioned minibuses. We are proud to have some of the best drivers in Sharm!

Question 1: Where is your Dive Center located and what is so special about it?

Camel Dive Club & Hotel is located in the heart of the Red Sea’s most varied area for diving - Sharm El Sheikh! Hesham Gabr, Camel Dive Club’s founder, visited Sharm as a young diver in the early 1980’s and had a dream. His dream is now the Camel experience. Camel Dive Club & Hotel was designed by divers, for divers, to bring together in one location all the essentials for a great diving holiday. Our comfortable 4-star Camel Hotel, a PADI 5* Instructor Development Dive Resort with specially-designed diver training pool, two award-winning restaurants, ice cream café, and the famous Camel Bar, are all located in the main pedestrian area of Naama Bay, just 5 minutes’ walk from the port. All our facilities have full access for wheelchair users.
For more Info PIC/LINK: webpage/photo/video: http://www.cameldive.com/about/us